Misbehaving camels and explosions at Al Dhafra: filming Furious 7 in Abu Dhabi

A pair of helicopter pilots who flew for action sequences on Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens spill details on another locally shot and anticipated 2015 action film: Furious 7.

The Helidubai pilots had to do some precise flying between Etihad Towers to get shots for a scene in Furious 7. A few windows seem to have been removed for the filming. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

The helicopter pilots who gave The National a revealing interview about their work on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens are now also spilling the beans on the making of Furious 7, the year's other hotly anticipated and locally shot action film.

Helidubai's flight operations manager, Andrew Masterson, and his colleague, Captain Andy Nettleton, are the only two filming pilots in the Middle East approved to work with Universal Studios. The Furious 7 filming that took place last April in the capital was shrouded in secrecy. Security guards fiercely shielded film locations on Abu Dhabi's Corniche, Emirates Palace and Etihad Towers. It wasn't known then, however, that the crew was also filming scenes in Abu Dhabi's desert.

“We shot some scenes out towards Al Dhafra,” says Masterson, 50, who is from Dublin. “We blocked off a certain area down there for some of the more dramatic shots of explosions and things like that. Also down towards Al Ain and Liwa. Doing the chase scenes in the desert was pretty exciting.”

Nettleton and Masterson clocked in between 30 and 40 hours of aerial filming on Furious 7. The highlight for Nettleton was the car chase scenes, even though Furious 7's stars, such as Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, weren't on set at the time.

“The actors aren’t professional drivers and it’d be too expensive for them to be actually in the cars doing these stunts over and over again,” says Nettleton, 52, who is from the United Kingdom. “It would be too much for them. Professional drivers were brought in from around the world to make sure they get everything correct.”

So, did the Dubai-based pilots get to meet any of the film’s many stars?

“The closest I got was to take an outfit, which somebody had left behind, to Vin Diesel,” says Nettleton. “He was in Al Ain and I was in Liwa Desert, and somebody had forgotten to take one of his costumes to him. He had to stay on the set and wait for me. Somebody had sent the wrong outfit by road and they were all sitting there waiting. I got to land my heli­copter right next to Vin Diesel.”

Nettleton reveals that some of the crew lived up to the “furious” part of the film’s title when they got wound up during the filming of a scene involving some mis­behaving camels.

“It was a difficult scene. We had to shoot it over and over again, because the camels were not quite behaving. The guy in charge of the camels had to take them back out of the area so they could reset the scene and all this takes time. Meanwhile, I was hovering above, waiting for everybody. The crew were getting frustrated. The director of photography had a few colourful words to say to one or two of the drivers because they were not getting the spacing right when they were driving in sequence. We just needed to reach that moment where everything came together at exactly the right time. I flew for two hours of what will probably be a 15-second segment. When I see the movie I’ll think: ‘All that work we did! Gone in a flash.’”

Nettleton also talks about how his flying skills were put to the test for one of the film’s most jaw-dropping sequences.

“We had to do some very precise flying, which took a lot of skill from Andrew and myself – flying in between Etihad Towers, very close to the building to get certain shots for a scene happening there.”

A trailer for Furious 7, screened during the Super Bowl, reveals Nettleton's efforts, as it depicts Vin Diesel smashing his car through the windows of one Etihad Towers building, then flying mid-air into the windows of another.

The car featured is the US$3.4 million (Dh12.5m) Lykan HyperSport, the third most expensive car ever made. The Lebanese-made car is the first supercar to be produced in the Middle East, powered by a twin turbo, flat-six, 3.7-litre engine, with 770 horsepower and a maximum speed of 385kph.

The National recently revealed that contrary to initial indications, Furious 7 won't be debuting in Abu Dhabi as had been an early plan. Sources close to the Hollywood production team said Vin Diesel wanted the premiere in Los Angeles so he could be near his long-term partner Paloma Jiménez, who is pregnant and due to deliver at around the time of the film's premiere. Tickets are selling online for a March 30 premiere in Los Angeles and a tentative UAE release for April 3.

Until then, the Furious 7 star Tyrese Gibson is busy stirring up hype for the film. The R&B singer-songwriter released a video on his Facebook page, featuring seven of his Emirati and Saudi friends in his kitchen. On Monday, the star, who has enjoyed several extended vacations in the UAE, indicated he could be returning by posting: "Spreading the love ...#UAE see you soon."

The video, in which he spreads "a whole lotta love" to his fans in the Gulf, has so far been seen by 130,000 people. "When I say I got love for the UAE and Saudi, when I say I got love for the Arabs worldwide, it's real," declares Gibson. "Furious 7 is coming in a couple of days … A whole other level, baby! … We got the UAE and Saudi in my kitchen!"

In the film, Gibson also appears in a hair-raising extended scene, released on Friday, in which his car is pulled out of a moving plane.